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God has blessed me. I have been in practice, full time, for 34 years and I still love helping people.

Let me share some observations with you.

It is a joy to help someone who is physically hurting. I find it more challenging to help someone who is emotionally hurting.

Especially someone who just feels so lonely.

I see people fight in their marriage, thinking divorce would be a good solution to their war. Only to find such loneliness that it depresses them worse.

I see elderly couples who still argue all the time, but when one of the passes on, the survivor is lonely and misses them so much.

I see kids more away from parents, and parents more away from kids. There are so many circumstances in life where you feel disconnected.

When you think of it, life is full of disconnection. We leave the warm, safety of our mother's womb. Every mother knows the pain when that child stays in school for the first day and no longer has mom as the main influence in their life.

Then they go away to college, or move away to get married. When a spouse leaves for active military duty, the family feels disconnected.

Do you feel disconnected?

Do you feel lonely?

I think we all do at times. Well he is the solution to your pain. The "3 Cs".

First you need to find companionship. Join a group that has similar interests as you do.

An art league, a bowling league, a bird-watching club or even volunteer at church to pinch pierogies. Anything to interact with others.

Hopefully that will lead to some friendships, maybe another relationship.

Because once you find companionship, secondly you need compassion.

An 80-year-old man was a patient of mine for years. He lived alone, his wife passed on six years ago.

He was lonely and kept his pain to himself. He didn't want to date, and was just waiting for death to take him out of his misery.

He had a son, who had trouble with drugs and alcohol. Unfortunately, his son died, and he was forced to take care of his 8-year-old grad daughter. I watched the transformation in him occur.

He said to me, "I always liked my granddaughter, but because of my son's addictions, I never got close to her. I was scared and didn't want to raise her at first. But I'm healthy, I've had some surgeries and I really didn't have a choice but to take her in. I'm the only family she has. And I guess she's the only family I have.

But what at first was awkward, has become so beautiful. She hugs me all the time, I kiss her goodnight, and her compassion towards me has given me a reason to live again. Oh, how I love her now!"

Once you find companionship, you will find compassion. And finally you will find courage.

It takes courage to fight loneliness. It takes courage to live positively every day. To fight cancer, to pay all the bills, to cope and get along with others.

And yet, as you read this, I believe all of us, even in loving relationships, still feel loneliness at times.

Saint Augustine wrote of how our soul searches and yearns and will never be truly satisfied until we are once again connected to God after we die.

I have had a great life. A good marriage, a fulfilling career, robust health, and healthy children. Yet at times all the toys of this beautiful world don't give me total peace.

When I take a walk in the woods, and get on my knees, and raise your arms to the heavens, and thank God for my many blessings, at that moment I feel no loneliness, total joy and total freedom.

So if you are elderly, and you feel lonely, the best source for you to find companionship, compassion and courage is to have a close relationship with God.

I pray that daily dialogue will help you to find joy in the midst of your loneliness.

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